One of the initial responses to a stressful event is a noticeable shift in the respiration rate. If you’re stressed, you will find you breathe more rapidly or you go the other way and hold your breath. This is soon followed by an increased heart rate and tightening of muscles as the stress hormones further kick.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The fantastic thing is the body has a parasympathetic nervous system which triggers the”rest and digest” reaction to have the ability to rebalance, after the “fight or flight” reaction of the sympathetic nervous system. When the stressful situation is over or diminished in intensity, someone will often wind up taking deep breaths for relief. These deep breaths are very important to activate a recovery and relaxation response in the mind. This will allow a normal breathing pattern to establish, which then slows the heart rate, expands the lungs and relaxes the muscles. Sometimes a person’s regular breathing routine doesn’t return immediately after the stressful situation has passed.

They continue to take shallow and rapid breaths which cause the brain to keep a stressed state, rather than going into the recovery phase. Subsequently, the body’s sympathetic nervous system also fails to unwind and becomes overworked. Quite often when this happens the individual experiences a panic attack. This will result in the depletion of essential nutrients in the body as the endocrine chemistry is further destabilized. If these adverse changes in body functions persist for lengthy intervals, the individual will be subject to a increasingly higher risk of health problems, linked to using an overworked sympathetic nervous system because of continuous exposure to stress.

Good news

Thankfully, activating the rest and digest reaction of the human body is something over which we do have some level of conscious control. By mindfully performing correct deep breathing we could”inform” our subconscious mind the stressful situation has passed and much more quickly switch to our recovery or settlement stage. Even if we do feel threatened or challenged, invoking this reaction through deep breathing enables greater clarity of mind, decrease feelings of alarm, and let reasoned idea instead of panicked reactions.

Relaxation

When we speak about “relaxation response” it doesn’t mean lying on a sofa or sleeping on a mattress. The relaxation response that’s promoted by consciously and actively heavy breathing will offer a calm but mentally alert mind, capable of focusing on any particular task rather than distracted with symptoms of anxiety. This state of mind enables the body to realize its settlement phase sooner. Deep breathing technique concentrates on taking deep, full breaths. While this might appear to be an overly simple technique, it’s been proven to be quite helpful in bringing about feelings of relaxation and calmness.

Conclusion

It’s simple to learn and you can practice it virtually everywhere. Performing deep breathing techniques on a regular basis has been clinically proven to positively influence a person’s digestive system, immune system, brain and heart function. Simply mastering this technique will provide you the confidence which you could deal with stressful situations as they happen. This trust on your own ability will also decrease the undercurrents of generalized anxiety that keep your stress levels raised. Whatever additional relaxation methods you decide to practice, you need to first learn the right way to breathe deeply.